Conversations with Writers

Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New Word (CivicLeicester, 2020) is now available * CivicLeicester is inviting and accepting poems and short fiction on the theme, Black Lives Matter . We welcome submissions exploring any of the images, issues, triggers, histories, lives, demands and outcomes that are being highlighted by Black Lives Matter and current and past protests. We welcome submissions from writers of all ages, based anywhere in the world. The video of George Floyd dying as a white policeman pressed his knee against Floyd's neck and kept it there even after Floyd had stopped speaking or moving has triggered weeks of mass protests around the world. The protests are taking place in the midst of a global pandemic that is also disproportionately killing people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Around the world people are demanding justice. "Black Lives Matter", "Hands up, don't shoot", "Am I a threat?", "I

Siobhan Logan is a storyteller and poet. Her first collection of poems and non-fiction, Firebridge to Skyshore: A Northern Lights Journey (original plus, 2009), was sponsored by auroral scientists at the University of Leicester. It was performed at the British Science Museum, the National Space Centre and Ledbury Poetry festival. Her second collection, Mad, Hopeless & Possible: Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition , was also published by Original Plus Press, whilst Philae’s Book of Hours was published on the European Space Agency’s website. Logan's poetry is widely published in magazines and short stories appear in various anthologies, including Wednesday’s Child (Factor Fiction, forthcoming 2020), Leicester Writes Anthology 2017 (Dahlia Books) and Mrs Rochester’s Attic (Mantle Press 2017). In 2014, she led a WW1 writing residency for 14-18 NOW and in 2015 co-edited a Five Leaves Books anthology for refugee solidarity, Over Land, Over Sea . She is co-director of i

Andrew Button lives in Market Bosworth in western Leicestershire, England. His poems have been published in magazines that include Orbis , Staple , The Interpreter’s House , Iota and Ink, Sweat and Tears . His pamphlet, Dry Days in Wet Towns , was published in 2016 and a first full collection, Melted Cheese on the Cosmic Pizza in 2017 by erbacce press . In this interview, Andrew Button talks about his latest collection of poems Music for Empty Car Parks and poetry in the time of Covid-19. How would you describe  Music for Empty Car Parks ? Music for Empty Car Parks is an eclectic mix of poems that wryly observe life with all its quirks and obsessions. Eccentricity and human preoccupations particularly fascinate me. You could say that is my poetical obsession! How long did it take you to put the book together? I have a large back catalogue of poems written over the years and it was a matter of selecting the best ones, old and new. I really enjoy the process and quite

Emma Lee was born in South Gloucestershire and now lives in Leicestershire. She is on the committee of Leicester Writers’ Club and the steering group for the Leicester Writers’ Showcase. Her poems, short stories and articles have appeared in many anthologies and magazines. Some of her poems have been been translated into languages that include Chinese, Farsi, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Romanian. Emma Lee co-edited Over Land, Over Sea: Poems for those seeking refuge (Five Leaves Publications, 2015) and Welcome to Leicester (Dahlia Publishing, 2016). She has four poetry collections, The Significance of a Dress (Arachne Press, 2020), Ghosts in the Desert (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2015), Mimicking a Snowdrop (Thynks, 2014) and Yellow Torchlight and the Blues (Original Plus, 2004). Her latest collection, The Significance of A Dress , has been described as "Poems informed by, and immersed in politics. Whether investigating the lives of refugees, fami